This invention relates generally to work scheduling and more specifically to an automated method for assigning resources to work items.
It is a problem in the field of customer service centers to provide a method for assigning a plurality of work itemsxe2x80x94either tangible or intangible such as calls, queries, or requestsxe2x80x94to a plurality of resources such as back office agents that each have skills corresponding to one or more work activities, while also meeting customer commitments assigned to individual work items. A business process is defined by a workflow which includes a plurality of activities or steps that are to be completed in an assigned order by back office agents having the skill to complete each particular work activity. Each back office agent has a set of skills for performing one or more work activities associated with the work items. Generally, back office agents operate in a xe2x80x9cpullxe2x80x9d mode wherein the back office agents are empowered to select work items at their own pace and on their own initiative.
Workflow managers usually set goals for moving a work item through the workflow by some point in time or within some period of time. These goals can often become frustrated. For example:
One or more work items may become queued, waiting for a back office agent with the appropriate skills to become available, thereby wasting precious time in achieving the goal.
Agents having a skill to perform a later activity in the workflow may be waiting for work items, because a later work activity cannot be performed until the prior work activities are completed.
Different items may follow different branches of the workflow, and may require the execution of longer activities or a greater number of activities.
Different work items may wait in queue different amounts of time for each activity.
Different work items may be processed by agents with different levels of experience and ability.
Some work items may be intrinsically more complex than others.
Some work items may be suspended by back office agents.
Some work items may be interrupted by interaction work.
This variation makes it difficult for an enterprise to set goals with any hope of achieving a high degree of success. The problem is compounded by allowing the back office agents to work in the xe2x80x9cpullxe2x80x9d mode.
If the back office agents are operating in the xe2x80x9cpullxe2x80x9d mode, the queued work items are not being completed based on the goal, thus causing one or more of the work items to miss the goal. Completion time for processing of work items can vary, thus making it difficult for a customer service organization to set goals with any hope of achieving them with a high degree of success. Missed goals result in decreased customer satisfaction and may decrease the value of the business. It is difficult for an enterprise to generate exceptional customer satisfaction and distinguish itself from the competition without being able to commit to and achieve consistent, reliable and timely completion for customers.
One alternative is to process work items on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis. The FIFO work system fails to provide a method for selecting a next work item to be processed based on the corresponding goal. Nor does the FIFO system correct the problem for work items that may have been delayed at an early point in the workflow. Instead, the work items progress through each step of the workflow by following the same FIFO work order. Since different work items in the same workflow may have different goals, the work items should progress through the workflow at different rates. Instead, each work item, regardless of goal, is completed in FIFO order.
Another system for completing processing of work items includes the use of priorities. Work items having a short goal may be assigned to a higher priority while work items having a longer goal are assigned to a lower priority. However, a problem arises with completing work activities first for high priority work items in that work items with lower work priorities are not worked until there are no higher priority work items waiting. Thus, high priority work items are over-worked and lower priority work items are under-worked, leading to missed goals for the lower priority work items.
Therefore, a need exists for an automated workflow method for assigning work items to available resources that takes into account the goals set for the individual work items.
An automated workflow method to assign resources to a plurality of work items based on the commitments made to service the work items, e.g., by a certain time or within a certain period of time. A commitment is assigned to each work item in a workflowxe2x80x94either the same commitment to each work item or different commitments to different work items. The workflow includes work activities to be completed in an assigned order and within the commitment. Each of the individual work activities in the workflow is assigned a threshold which represents a portion of a work item""s total commitment. Different work activities are performed by agents within different work groups that have the skills required to perform the corresponding work activities.
When a plurality of work items are being serviced simultaneously, two or more work items may be queued in an activity queue, waiting for a same work activity to be performed. A work activity state of each queued work item is calculated and the work items are stored in the activity queue based on their respective activity state. When an agent receives work items from a single activity queue, the activity state of the queued work items is used to determine which one of the queued work items will be assigned to the next available agent. The commitment assigned to each work item and the threshold assigned to the work activity for each queued work item are utilized to determine an activity state of each queued work item. When an event occurs within the activity queue, the activity state of the queued work items may be recalculated to maintain the work items in an order based on the state of the queued work items. In an embodiment, the activity queue may include one or more timers which activate the recalculation, and therefore the reorganization, of the queued work items. Based on the states of the queued work items, one of the queued work items is assigned to the next available agent to ensure that the work items complete the workflow within their commitments.
An agent may be assigned to receive work items from more than one activity queue. The agent may have one or more regular activity queues from which he is assigned work items and may be assigned to work other activity queues as a reserve or backup agent. The back office agent will only receive work items from a reserve activity queue when the activity state of the reserve activity queue is higher than the activity state of the primary activity queues to which the back office agent is assigned. The back office agent will not be activated to receive work items from an activity queue for which the agent is backup unless there are no work items queued in the back office agents primary activity queues.
In this scenario, which work item is pushed to the available back office agent is first determined by the activity state of the activity queues for which the agent is activated. When two or more activity queues have the same highest activity state, a queued work item from a primary activity queue will be selected first. When more than one primary activity queue has the same highest activity state, the short term predictor, the PCP, of the activity queue is calculated and the work item having the highest PCP is pushed to the available agent.
The PCP, or short term predictor, is calculated using the actual commitment, an elapsed portion of the commitment, and a predicted portion of the commitment that would elapse if the corresponding work item is not processed by the next available agent. Based on the short term predictor, one of the queued work items is assigned to the next available agent as described above.
A long term predictor may also be calculated to avoid missed commitments. The long term predictor is calculated using the actual commitment, the elapsed portion of the commitment, and an estimated portion of the commitment to detect backlogs of work items.
Some of the advantages achievable with the invention include:
Allow an enterprise to define commitments for the completion of the entire back office workflow or segments of the workflow, and to meet those commitments with a high degree of success.
Allow enterprises to reduce overall staffing requirements while at the same time improving the achievement of commitments by dynamically adjusting the pool of the back office agents when the achievement of those commitments is threatened.
Allow an enterprise to define different goals for each unique work item in the same workflow, and to manage the progress of each work item through the workflow process at its own required pace in order for each work item to achieve its own commitment.
Allow an enterprise to make commitments (including different commitments) to their customers, and to achieve those commitments with a high degree of success.
Allow back office agents to operate in pull mode, push mode, or a hybrid of both.
Allow back office agents to participate in both front office and back office activities.